The other day our editorial team met a young and promising illustrator and designer from Belgorod - Xenia Shemelina, and she agreed to give an exclusive interview to us about her work and her personal source of inspiration.

Good afternoon, Xenia. I always like to talk with young and talented people. They usually have a lot of positive energy and a lot of ideas, which they want with fervent zeal to realize. As far as I know, you are a student of BGIC (Belgorod State Institute of Arts and Culture), but at the same time you have been doing freelancing since 2011, how do you manage to combine? Does this affect your academic performance at the institute? Positively or negatively?

Good afternoon, to be honest, I do not see anything difficult to combine work and study, as creativity fills my whole life. There are no borders and divisions, the institute is this, work or rest, I try to devote my time to my own development. I still have one year to finish my studies, he is all devoted to my thesis work. I always managed to do several things at the same time, so my work did not affect my studies.

I was also impressed by the fact that your portfolio is shining with the variety of your professional capabilities, here are illustrations and logo design and corporate identity, as well as typography and packaging and much more. Is it difficult to be a jack of all trades? Or is it necessary in such a saturated market?

The profession of a graphic designer means knowing all these industries. Graphic designer simply must be versatile, it requires not so much the market as the development of professionalism. I can not say that it was always easy for me, but the more difficult the task, the greater the possibility of finding an unusual solution to it, to look at the usual things differently. All the difficulties that met on my way brought me my personal invaluable experience, so I love difficulties. I think that I have not discovered much yet and at the moment this is only the beginning of my search.

Most of all, of course, I was interested in your work in the field of illustration. Their unusual and your special style is amazing! How long have you discovered such talents? Did you study at any art schools? Or, maybe, she was engaged in self-development, and then just entered the institute?

Thank you, I'm certainly pleased to hear your comments about my illustrations. I studied in the art studio, and also painted at the institute, but I can say that this did not affect my work in any way. There I received only basic knowledge. I started to illustrate the technique of Digital Art about a year ago. Illustration is now an integral part of my life, I'm constantly looking for new images, contrasting the animal and the human, male and female, strong and defenseless.

The work of a freelancer is initially difficult because of a lack of clientele, how did you find your first clients? Or maybe they yourself once found you and you decided to do it seriously?

I found my first clients on one of the sites of freelancers, but after a short time the customers themselves began to find me. I'm happy to work in this field and I think that you will never see me in the sad office of an advertising agency). Freedom of the freelancer is very attractive, although sometimes I work for 18 hours almost without interruption, I get tremendous pleasure from this process. I really love my job and I find an individual approach to every order.

A lot of important for the artist is participation in exhibitions and festivals, because this is a great place to show oneself, and the world to see. And did you participate in exhibitions, festivals? Were there any prizes, awards?

Yes, you're right, participation in all kinds of exhibitions is of great importance for the artist, designer. Every year I participate in the Belgorod Festival of Advertising and Design - the exhibition and congress center "Belexpocentre", since 2010, this winter I took part in the St. Petersburg Font Fest festival, in 2012 I exhibited at the exhibition "Red chrome" - motor show "Jaguar" - Belgorod , also participated in the exhibition of comics in November last year under the guidance of the German artist Arthur Klose at the Pyzh Cafe. In December 2013 my illustrations were exhibited at the exhibition of Maxim Serikova and Ksenia Shemelynaya - the anti-penalty "Grimerka". A month ago I published my magazine "Symbol and color", in which my illustrations and descriptions to them were published. You can see it in various cafes and shops of the city.

Next week my personal exhibition opens in the coffee house "Calypso", Belgorod.

Many "ordinary" people have a stereotype that all creative individuals draw their inspiration and ideas from drugs and other mucks, I personally do not think so. How do you feel about such stereotypes and what is your inexhaustible source of inspiration for you?

I absolutely disagree with this stereotype, inspiration appears unexpectedly and can arise from nowhere and just as quickly evaporate and no psychotropic substances will return you this emotional upsurge. I do not like when people hang labels on people, if you are an artist, you are necessarily a drunkard, and if a musician, you are certainly a drug addict. Personally for me, inspiration is women, fashion, beauty, cinematography, photography of everything and not list. I love reading books of famous illustrators, they always inspire me, so I'm a big fan of films about artists. I like to watch other people's work and it does not matter whose sculptures are Auguste Rodin, or the surreal world of Salvador Dali. I am convinced that the artist can not inspire anything stronger than another artist.

Photogallery Total | 33 pictures